1. Related Application Data
Priority is hereby claimed to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/299,138 filed Jun. 18, 2001, the content of which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
2. Copyright Notice
This patent document contains information subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office files or records but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
3. Field of the Invention
The present invention, in certain respects, may relate to the manufacture of hard disks. In other respects, the present invention may relate to burnishing of a hard disk's read/write heads to prevent problems associated with pole tip protrusion (PTP). In other respects, the present invention may relate to methods and systems for determining when a hard disk read/write head is subjected to undesired PTP.
4. Description of Background Information
Hard disks are being manufactured with increased access speeds and storage capacities. Manufacturers of these (present day and future) improved-performance hard disks have decreased the distance between the hard disk's read/write heads and its disk media. As a result, slight variations in the positioning or dimensions of the heads or of the disk media can cause the heads and the disk media to collide. For example, such a collision can be caused by protrusion of the pole tips of the write portion of a given read/write head, a phenomenon referred to as pole tip protrusion (PTP). Systems have been provided that detect for undesired or excessive pole tip protrusion, and take corrective action by burnishing the pole tips of a write portion of a read/write head of a hard disk. Such systems may determine whether a given head is subjected to undesired PTP by looking at errors in the servo field, specifically the variation of the PES position error signal.